The Golden Necklace
by JAMFic
Summary: Ron has been working on a special gift for Hermione for their wedding anniversary. He wants to keep it a secret so it can be a big surprise! But when he faces some unforeseen problems, this is easier said than done.


**I feel like even after a few years of marriage Ron would still be trying to impress Hermione. So this is a story I came up with. Enjoy!**

Ron didn't like to be so secretive but he wanted to make sure it was a big surprise for Hermione. He hadn't even told Harry or his sister to what he was doing. He snuck out of the house quietly knowing that she would be asleep. It was past midnight and the half-moon glowed in the sky. Everything was still as he made his way down the stone path to the old shed at the back of the yard. This house had belonged to muggles so the old shed had not been used since they had purchased the house. At least the spiders inside were a manageable size.

For their 2nd wedding anniversary Ron had decided to try what the muggles called online shopping to get Hermione a gift. In his searching, he found a lovely golden necklace that had caught his eye. It was perfect and it was only going to cost 20 pounds. Hermione had taught him some things about muggle money and he knew that this was a bargain. Taking out the muggle credit card he entered the numbers into the computer. Hermione kept the card for buying gifts for her parents or for emergencies. He didn't know what emergencies she was talking about, as most would be easily solved with magic, but he didn't question her. With the payment made and his address entered, he closed the computer and went back inside.

The gift arrived in a brown box three days later. He eagerly took it out to the back shed to open it. But what he found inside was not a lovely golden necklace. Instead it was a thin orange copper chain. Annoyed he threw the box across the room. What was he going to give her now?

At that moment a thought came to him. He would just use magic to fix it and turn it into a gold necklace. Surely it wouldn't be too hard. He hadn't done potions since 6th year at Hogwarts and he was sure that it was a topic covered in the N.E.W.T level. But he would at least give it a go.

He ran back into the house and found a copy of Hermione's old _Advanced Potion-Making_ from when she completed her schooling. The book covered the transmutation of different metals to gold in the Alchemy section. In early Alchemy all materials were considered impure versions of gold, before they discovered that there were separate elements. Bringing the book, the potion ingredients and his old cauldron out to the shed, Ron prepared the potion as the book outlined. As he added the last ingredient, dried lizard tongue, the mixture turned a dark green colour just as the book said. Everything was set, all he had to do was dip the necklace into the potion and it would become gold.

He looped the necklace over his wand and slowly lowered it down into the cauldron. Just as the necklace hit the liquid however, a huge bubble burst causing the necklace to slip off his wand and into the cauldron. Without thinking Ron stuck his hand straight in to grab it.

His hand went stiff and he couldn't feel his fingers. Lifting it up, he discovered that his arm, from below the elbow, was now solid gold. This was not good. He began to panic. How was he going to explain this to his friends or to Hermione? If it got out that Ron Weasley had turned his hand to gold, he would become the laughing stock of the wizarding world.

Looking back through the potions book, Ron couldn't find any way to reverse the process. The writer probably never expected someone to be stupid enough to put their hand in a potion that turned things to solid gold.

Looking at his hand, he could see all of the creases and fingerprints outlined in the gold. He went to tap his index golden finger, expecting it to be solid and hard. But Gold, when it is completely pure, is quite a soft metal and therefore other metals like Copper are added to gold jewellery to strengthen it. So when Ron tapped his golden finger, it bent to the side at a right angle.

Maybe Hermione had a spell book that could change his hand back. He made his way back to the main house as quickly as possible, sending the book and potion ingredients flying everywhere. In the house he spied one of her N.E.W.T spell books lying on the coffee table. With his good hand he shuffled through the pages as quickly as he could before stopping on a page for a spell that transfigured glass into gold. It had a reversal spell so he hoped that that would work. Pointing his wand directly at his gold hand he said the words before a big flash of light covered his hand. Once the light had faded however, his hand was now made of glass.

Frustrated, he threw his arms back and in the process hit his glass hand on the bookshelf behind. Two of his glass fingers fell off with a snap. Luckily he couldn't feel it because the shock alone of seeing his three fingered glass hand made him sick to the stomach.

Just at that point he could hear the sounds of Hermione rematerializing in the fire place. She was home early! Ron panicked. He did not want her to see him like this! Looking through the book again he came across a spell that changed glass into animals. He vaguely remembered performing this in class and thought that it would work. Logically, he was an animal so therefore it should work. He pointed his wand at his glass hand, uttered the words and a huge blast of pink light came from his wand. Once the light had cleared his hand was now in the shape of a furry dog. He could see four legs pointing out from the positions of where four of his fingers would be and a tail where his middle finger would be. Instead of a head, the dog's body joined in to the rest of his arm. The tail wagged and the legs started to move. The sick feeling in his stomach came up this throat bringing with it the butterbeer he had had at lunch. He passed out, just as Hermione entered the room.

By the time he woke up it was dark and he was in a strange bed. Looking around Ron saw that he was in the hospital. Everything that had happened came rushing back and he slowly looked down at his hand. It was normal again. All five fingers worked perfectly and he could see no sign of gold, glass or dog. At that moment Hermione walked in, a look of amusement across her face.

"What in merlins name were you doing?" she said

He told her about the lovely golden necklace that he had bought online for their anniversary. Then how, when he discovered it was fake, he had tried to turn it into gold. But then he accidentally put his hand in the potion, turning it to gold, before trying to fix it. First he turned his hand to glass and then to a dog. During this time Hermione just stood there patiently nodding at everything he said.

"But what about the golden shed?"

Ron just looked at her.

"What golden shed?"

"The one that is in our back yard! It is completely gold!"

It was at that point that Ron realised that in his rush he must have knocked the cauldron over in his rush back to the house.

"How are you going to sort that out?" She said.

He smiled. "Well first I will turn it to glass and then I will turn it into a dog." He replied

 **Thanks for reading! Any feedback or comments are greatly appreciated!**

 **This story is featured in the third episode of my podcast JAMFiction on Soundcloud!**


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